Books, in all their variety, offer the human intellect the means whereby civilisation may be carried triumphantly forward. -Churchill

Fact of the day: 5th July

On this day in 1675 Mary Walcott, American witness at the Salem witch trials was born.

She was the daughter of Captain Jonathan Wolcott (1639–1699), and his wife Mary Sibley (1644–1683), both of Salem, and was about seventeen years old when the allegations started in 1692.

Her aunt, Mary Woodrow, the wife of Samuel Sibley (1657–1708), was the person who first showed Tituba and her husband John Indian how to bake a witch cake to feed to a dog in order that she and her friends might ascertain exactly who it was that was afflicting them.

At the trials, she was said to be calm, but subsequently critics have accused her of everything from compromise to actually being a witch who foiled her potential adversaries by distracting their attention away from her onto innocent persons.

She married Isaac Farrar on April 28, 1696. Isaac was the son of John Farrar of Woburn, Massachusetts. They had several children, and eventually moved to Townsend, Massachusetts.

Mary Wolcott also married David Harwood in 1701 in Sutton, Massachusetts. They had nine children. They removed to Sutton, about 1729, leaving most of their children living in Salem. David was a weaver by occupation. David died before 1744, his wife Mary probably died before 1752.